Smart key and sensitive door handles

I don't know if any of you have ever noticed this. We all know that there is a sensitive strip on the inside of the front door handles that unlocks the car when you have the smartkey close by and you pull the handle to open the door.

But have you ever noticed that you don't actually have to reach into the handle to unlock the door. For me, it works just as well if I just brush the back of my fingers over the outside of the handle with a fairly strong and quick motion.

The car beeps twice and the door unlocks. Also, the car doesn't care whose fingers are doing it, just so long as the person with the smartkey is standing close by. It works for my wife if I am standing next to her with the smartkey.

Just a little bit of trivia to add to the pile.

Of course it doesn't care who's fingers are touching the sensor... it's not like it takes dna samples or something.

What I thought would be cool would be to encase the part of the fob that the car senses in stainless steal and having it embedded under your skin like on of those crazy body mods... only you'd have to have surgery every time the battery ran out.

Just a thought!


If you lock the doors like I tell me wife to do any time she is driving, if someone came up and pulled the door handle open at a stop light would it open because it would have the key near, driver inside the car with it in pocket?

No, and you can prove this to yourself by having your wife sit in the car with her fob and lock the doors. Then, you go up to the car and try to open it: first without your own fob; then try again with your fob in your pocket.

I believe that you will find in either case, the car doors will not unlock.

cyberbro,
It is called "SmartKey" for a reason.
There are several interior sensors and three exterior sensors (one inside driver's door, one inside passenger's door, and the last on inside the hatch). The SmartKey system 'knows' where the key really is by comparing signal strength among all sensors (interior and exterior) and approximate the position of the key. It works very well.

In your scenario, the key is determined to be inside the cabin and somewhere near the driver seat so that the door would not open from outside. The door can be opened only when the key is determined to be outside the cabin and near that specific door (or hatch). The range of sensor is only a 3ft, so its signal weakens very quickly by distance.

Are you saying it is too sensitive? I think if it were any other way it would not work like you would want it too. Don't forget you can turn the sensor off and use the regular key system.

NO! This is not a complaint, just an observation. I love the smartkey system. (wish I had it on my other car) Just for fun try the back of the fingers across the outer surface of the handle thing for yourself and see if it works for you.

Reminds me of those lamps that you touch to turn on and off.

No clapping outside your car!

Mine even works when I'm wearing gloves, although the manual says it may not.

The first time I washed my Prius, I had the SmartKey fob in my pocket. Everytime I ran water from the hose, at very moderate pressure, over the door handle, the car locked, then unlocked the next time I got water near the handle. Happened half a dozen times. Yesterday, I had the fob in my pocket again when washing the car, but it didn't happen once.

This isn't exactly the reason why someone won't be able to unlock the door while his wife is driving. The doors will not unlock by touching the door handles while the car is running. You can test this by locking the car with it running (close door with drivers window down, reach in, lock the door, then hit the auto window up). If the car's running and the doors are locked you can only unlock the door from the inside, or using the metal key.

Mike

You could just put in a zipper. LOL

I had the car open a couple of times without ever touching the handle (just getting close). I can't duplicate it when I try to. Anyone else?

Mike

I found that simply by passing my fingers behind the dooor handle without touching anything the doors will unlock.

I've also noticed that when you approach the car at night the interior lights will come on before you even reach for the door - try it! If you just reach for the door as you approach, the door will unlock first, but just walk up to the car (with the fob) and look inside for a second or two - the lights will come on.

As discussed elsewhere on this blog, the smart key has been dumbed down on the 2010 II and III,no longer works independently on the drivers door, or the passenger door of the rear hatch. It now only works on either just the drivers door, or can be reprogrammed such that touching the drivers door opens all 5 doors. Toyota subtly reveals this if you look at the fine fine print and even some the sales and service personnel aren't aware of this dumbing down from past years. Of course for several thousand more you can get the IV or V which includes what used to be the standard 3 door smart key system.

incorrect

They didn't dumb it down. They simply switched from forcing you to buy model IV or V to get 3-door smartkey.

It was NOT standard on the 2nd gen. The choices were NO smartkey or 3-door smartkey. A former coworker has an 07 or 08 that doesn't have smartkey. I confirmed it myself.

See http://priuschat.com/forums/knowled...andard-optional-equipment-some-countries.html.

FWIW, I'm not happy about the change either and have griped about this in another thread months ago.